The Adventures of Lucy: Part Three

     A few minutes later, after changing into my bathing suit, grabbing my sunglasses, hat, and room key, I was positioned in the center of the elevator. It wasn’t until it reached the bottom floor – the lobby – that it stopped.

     Sure enough, Mikki and Kailey were sitting, waiting for me, in some of the big cushy chairs. I ran up to greet them, but stopped when I saw another pet with them. Who’s that? I wondered. I knew right away it couldn’t be their sister Hope, because the pet didn’t look anything like a Kau.

     The pet had his or her back to me, so I couldn’t see their face. But Mikki and Kailey stood up, smiling and waving, when they saw me. The other pet turned around to look.

     “Hi, Lucy!” the girls said in unison when I reached them. Then Mikki continued, “This is Geneva. We just met her while we were waiting for you. She checked in a little bit ago.”

     Geneva was a baby Aisha. She had an adorable little dress on and a matching hat. The hat had even more flowers on it than mine did! When she caught my gaze, I saw a strange, icy cold look in her eyes, and I was startled by it.

     It must have shown clearly on my face, because Kailey asked, “What’s wrong, Lucy?” Geneva smirked at me and started to smooth out the non-existent wrinkles on her dress. The dress was white with very light green stripes – the same one I had seen in the NC mall a few weeks ago, but Mister wouldn’t let me get it. “Maybe when you’re a little bit older,” he had said.

     “What?” I asked, hardly hearing her concerned question. “Oh – oh, nothing. Really.” I sent a raised eyebrow glance over at Geneva, but she had started to talk to Mikki and was ignoring me. Strange. We hadn’t even met yet.

     “Ready to go to the pool?” Mikki asked, ending the conversation. Then she told me, “We invited Geneva to come to the pool with us, since she has no friends here and stuff.”

     “Cool,” I said slowly, not sure how I should be feeling. I was getting the vibe that Geneva didn’t exactly like me. Oh, well; maybe she was just unsure of herself, being “the new girl.” Mikki and I walked side-by-side the whole way to the pool, Kailey and Geneva chatting right behind us.

     It was mostly empty when we arrived, since it wasn’t even nine in the morning yet. I was glad about that, because there was no one hogging the diving board. Mikki, Kailey, and I all dropped our stuff onto some lounge chairs and headed straight for the water.

     Then we all stopped and looked back at Geneva. “Aren’t you coming in?” Mikki asked.

     Geneva had stretched out on one of the lounge chairs with her hat and a pair of stylish sunglasses on. When I saw her glasses, I looked over at mine, embarrassed. Why have heart-shaped pink glasses, when you could have stylish, sophisticated, black ones?

     Geneva must have seen my look, because a sly smile crept across her face. I didn’t like it one bit. Mikki had to repeat her question. Snapping her attention to the other girls, Geneva turned sweet. “Oh, no thanks,” she called. “I’m just going to relax. I’m not a big fan of swimming.”

     Not a big fan of swimming! I was shocked, and my mouth fell open. Never, in my entire life, had I met a non-swimmer. Even Mister, a big business man, went swimming.

     Mikki and Kailey seemed quite surprised, too, but all they said was, “Oh. Well, alright, then.” Geneva gave a cute little shrug and pulled out a book: Cheat in Style.

     You’re not supposed to cheat at the game Cheat, was all I could think when I saw the title. Instead of saying anything, I turned my back to her and followed my friends over to the edge of the pool.

     Mikki dipped her feet in. “Brr!” she yelped. “It’s freezing.” I tested the water with my toes and agreed with her.

     “Come on, you guys!” Kailey said, scrambling up on to the diving board. “Just jump in, and you’ll warm up real fast.” After saying that, Kailey did so. She cautiously walked to the end of the diving board, and with a little hop, splashed into the water, spraying Mikki and I with a cold, wet shower.

     Kailey’s head popped up a few seconds later, and her teeth were chattering uncontrollably. “F-feels gr-great in h-here!” she called to us.

     “Yeah, right!” We just laughed at her, sitting on the edge with our feet dipped in. After a little while, the sun rose up higher, and started to warm up the water. Mikki and I held our noses then slipped in.

     “Shiver me timbers!” Mikki cried out playfully when we surfaced. “It’s freezing!”

     Kailey laughed. “You’ll warm up after a while,” she said, swimming around us in a circle. “Come on. Let’s play a game.”

     For the next couple of hours, we swam, played water games, and swam some more. Soon, more and more pets started to arrive, and we were forced to the shallow end, being the smallest there. After getting tired of the crowded area, we all climbed out and grabbed our towels.

     “Did you have a nice time?” Geneva asked Mikki and Kailey, once again ignoring me as she sipped her iced tea. The girls nodded as they dried off. “Good.”

     I stared at Geneva in disgust as she commented on Mikki and Kailey’s bathing suits. Who did this girl think she was, and why was she trying to steal my new friends? I threw my damp towel onto one of the lounge chairs and briskly announced, “I’m going up to my room to change.”

     “Okay,” Kailey said. “We’re going to up soon, too. Want to meet for lunch somewhere?”

     “Sure,” I said, trying to calm my feelings down. In my head, I added, Just as long as Geneva won’t be there.

     I clenched my teeth to keep from yelling when Kailey turned to Geneva and asked, “Do you want to have lunch with us, too, Eva?”

     Eva. What a nice, innocent nickname. Nevertheless, did it really fit Geneva? I didn’t think so. “Sure,” Geneva said brightly, flipping off her sunglasses. “I need to change my dress, though. This one’s getting ruffled.”

     Mikki cocked an eyebrow and Kailey and I exchanged glances. Getting ruffled? I thought. You haven’t even done anything!

     “Okay, well, I’m going to go change out of my suit,” I said, breaking the silence. “How about we meet back at the lobby in fifteen minutes?”

     “Sounds fine,” Kailey started to say, when Geneva cut in.

     “Fifteen minutes? I need at least a half an hour,” the Aisha announced. “I need to shower, change my dress, and fix my makeup. Fifteen minutes isn’t going to be enough time.”

     Mikki’s stomach grumbled loudly – we all heard it. Embarrassed, she clutched her arms around her stomach. “Well, I’m starved,” she said. “I don’t think I can wait that long!”

     Geneva let out a huff. “Fine, then. I’ll meet you at the health food store in twenty minutes.”

     “Health food store?” I asked, wrinkling my nose. “How about Hubert’s Hotdogs, or the Pizzaroo?”

     Geneva grimaced. “Hotdogs? Pizza? Yuck. I only eat healthy food, Lily.”

     Lily? “Um, my name is Lucy.” No one’s ever called me Lily before! Isn’t Lucy an easy name to remember?

     “Lucy. Whatever. Fine, meet me at the Pizza-whatever it’s called in twenty minutes.” She gave me one last rude glare and turned to the other girls. “Okay?” she asked sweetly.

     Confused, Kailey and Mikki both nodded. “Sure.”

     We walked off together, with Mikki muttering, “That was weird.”

     * * *

     Lunch was a disaster. Geneva ordered a garden fresh pizza slice, and she hated it. Mikki, Kailey, and I all enjoyed our pizzas, even having smoothies with them. Geneva went hungry, watching jealously as we ate our food.

     She perked up when we decided to browse through the NC Mall, and she bought a whole load of stuff. By the time we hit Uni’s Clothing, the three of us were carrying Geneva’s shopping bags.

     “Oh, wait!” Geneva cried after we left the clothes shop. “I need to go in the Grooming Parlor. I’m out of my favorite gold Eyeshadow.”

     She ended up leaving the shop with three colors of Eyeshadow, a bottle of suntan lotion, a bar of soap, two lipstick containers, and a pink mirror. It was crazy! Mikki, Kailey, and I weren’t even able to buy anything since we were too busy holding Geneva’s stuff.

     Back at the hotel, we had to carry her things up to floor three. “Just leave them at the door,” she said when we reached room 64. “I can bring them in myself.”

     Gladly, we dropped the heavy bags on the ground. Then the silence began. “So...” I said. “I guess we’ll get together again, tomorrow?” I wasn’t particularly aiming my question at Geneva, but I didn’t want to be rude.

     “Actually,” Geneva said briskly, “my owner is coming for a visit tomorrow. I’ll be gone all day. We’re going to Faerieland.”

     Fine with me, I thought, relieved. I turned to Kailey and Mikki. “Do you guys wanna do something, then?”

     “Sure,” Mikki answered. “Maybe we could walk to Kiko Lake.”

     “That sounds fun,” I said, my enthusiasm beginning to build up. “Let’s meet again in the lobby after breakfast. We can spend the day there.”

     “Isn’t there some type of tour, there, too?” Kailey asked.

     “Oh yeah,” I said, trying to remember my last visit to Kiko Lake. “There’s glass-bottom tours. You go on a boat and can see all the coral and creatures in the water. It’s neat! Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll spot a Jetsam.”

     * * *

     Geneva checked out early the next morning. None of us asked why, but we each offered a good-bye before her owner picked her up.

     Kailey, Mikki, and I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at Kiko Lake. We took a glass-bottom tour first thing in the morning, when the water was flat and calm. At the treat shop, we purchased quite a few of Kiko Lake’s famous rock candy sticks.

     We even met two other baby pets who lived there – Alyett, a baby Eyrie, and Clea, a baby Shoyru. They were really nice, and we swam with them in the lake for an hour and a half before they had to go.

     Back in Room 126, I sprawled out on my giant bed, staring out the glass doors. I spread the rock candy I had brought back on my bed – grape and lime, red berry, banana and chocolate, and a mixed one. The banana and chocolate stick was for Mister – his favorite flavors. The grape and lime I planned to give to Hannah, and the red berry was for me, a gift from Aly and Clea.

     That evening, I had dinner in Marcie’s room, where we ate cheese sandwiches, fresh peaches, and homemade chocolate crème pie for dessert. The reason for the dinner was to discuss party plans. Marcie had gotten permission to throw a going-away fest in the banquet room for Hannah, since she was a leaving employee.

     Marcie made a long list of items to get the next day during her break, while I tried to think of everything possible. Party invitations, a huge cake, hamburgers and hotdogs for the guests, lots of cans of Neocola (caffeine-free and diet, too!), wrapping paper, bubble blowers, and much, much more.

     Marcie thought up the words for the invitations. “The Astro-Villa hotel is throwing a *surprise!* going away party for one of our beloved employees, Hannah. You’re invited, this afternoon at 2 o’ clock in the banquet room. Remember – it’s a secret!”

     “Perfect,” I announced as she finished writing the words on a flowered pink card. “I can pass these out tomorrow morning.”

     And that I did. By ten o’ clock the next morning had given all the guests given invitations, and nearly all of them said they would be able to come. Quite a few even promised to bring extra food, like cookies and ice cream.

     I invited Mikki and Kailey, as well – I couldn’t leave them out, even if they only knew Hannah a little. “She was very nice to us when she showed us our room,” Kailey recalled. “We’ll try and bring her a little gift.”

     I went out before the party to get Hannah’s present. I found a neat seashell-print beach towel, which would be perfect on the beaches of Mystery Island. The gift shop in Neopia Central had many items to choose from, so I picked out a few special things and bought a box to put them in.

     It was going to be perfect.

To be continued...